Job Design

____ is best for specialized jobs.

Instrumental motivation

How do specialized jobs load on the five task characteristics?

Loads are low on all of the job characteristics except for feedback (medium to high).

___ began because of the Industrial Revolution and they are the diversion of an activity into smaller and smaller task elements—leads to specialists who have a limited area of expertise.

Specialized jobs

How does technology affect job redesign efforts?

The more the design of the job is influenced by technological factors, the less job design flexibility that exists. Therefore, it is easier to redesign a craft job than an assembly line because there is only one person to deal with.

The motivational benefits of job enlargement are short-lived or long-lived?

The motivational benefits of job enlargement are short-lived because two boring jobs do not present much a challenge and the person becomes bored anyway.

What is the Yerkes-Dodson law?

There is a curvilinear relationship between arousal and performance.

How is job enrichment different from job enlargement?

Therefore, job enrichment always involves job enlargement, but job enlargement does not always involve job enrichment. Job enrichment adds not only breadth, but depth.

How do unions feel about any attempt from management to redesign jobs?

Unions resist job redesign because they see it as a scheme to get more work out of fewer employees.

What step in the redesign process is most important?

Vertical loading bc it increase autonomy- you become your own boss

What are the three aspects of job design?

a) job's content b) the work methods or procedures to be used in its performance c) how is it related to other jobs in the organization

What are the 5 steps in redesigning a job so it will be enriched? What happens at each step and what task characteristics are increased?

a. Form natural work units—given continuing responsibility for a body of related work or a "whole" piece of work. It should increase task identity and task significance because of increased feeling of "ownership" of job. b. Combining tasks—combine several tasks in to a larger job requiring a broader range of skills. This increase skill variety and task identity. c. Establishing client relationships—put into contact with people who use their product or service. This increase skill variety, task significance, autonomy, and feedback. d. Vertical loading—given more responsibility for their jobs by setting their schedules, establishing work pace, choosing methods, and problem-solving. This increases mostly autonomy. e. Opening feedback channels—opens communication channels. This increases performance feedback—most important feedback is the feedback from yourself.

What are the advantages of job enrichment?

a. High employee motivation. b. High job satisfaction. c. High quality job performance. d. Low absenteeism. e. Low turnover (quitting).

What are the three moderators that influence the effectiveness of job enrichment?

a. Knowledge and skill b. Growth needs strength c. "Context" satisfactions

What are the advantages of specialized jobs?

a. Less skilled employees can be hired because of simplicity of assignments—pay them less. b. Jobs can be learned in less time—reduced training costs. c. Constant repetition leads to limited expertise—increases productivity. d. More opportunities for utilizing the primary talents of the employee. e. Work is performed quicker—no lost time switching activities. f. Dependence on particular employee skills is minimized.

What are the disadvantages of specialized jobs?

a. Low employee motivation. b. Low job satisfaction. c. Low quality job performance. d. High absenteeism. e. High turnover (quitting). f. Sabotage and strikes. g. Alcohol and drug abuse.

What are the disadvantages of job enrichment?

a. Some workers may not want enriched jobs because it adds more demands and stress. b. Individual may not have the skills necessary to do an enriched job—training costs are high and some skills cannot be taught, such as social. c. Employees may want greater intrinsic rewards for higher responsibility. d. Unions do not support enriched jobs because they see it as a way for management to get more for less. e. Supervisors of employees of enriched jobs get reduced enrichment of their own jobs because they are no longer needed as much. f. Enriched jobs may not offset technological costs. g. Poor employee performance is only one problem in productivity. There may be many others that need to be fixed.

What are the different aspects of the job characteristics model?

a. job core dimensions b. critical psychological states c. personal and work outcomes

What employee factors should be taken into consideration when designing jobs?

ability and motivation

What task characteristic(s) is job depth similar to?

autonomy

the extent to which employees have a major say in scheduling their work, selecting the equipment and methods they will use, checking their own work (quality control), and deciding the procedures to be followed- job depth

autonomy

What step in the redesign process is job enlargement?

combining tasks is like job enlargement

moderator that influences effectiveness of a job that are things surrounding your job (ex: pay, benefits, coworkers, supervision, company policy, working conditions, etc). If you are not satisfied, performance will go down.

context satisfactions

What job design is least prevalent today? Most prevalent today?

craft jobs are least prevalent today; specialized jobs are most prevalent today

___ is best for enriched jobs.

expressive motivation

sees work as an end in itself such as wants to grow through his/her work or wants personal fulfillment and satisfaction from the work itself

expressive motivation

The degree to which employees, as they are working, receive information that reveals how well they are performing on the job. This can come from co-workers, supervisors, subordinates, clients, or even the job itself, and also appraisal, awards/promotions, and personal evaluation.

feedback

moderator that influences effectiveness of a job where motivational variable. Your need to grow for your job can be high or low. Expressive motivational people have a high need to grow for their job (craft jobs), while instrumental motivational people have a low need to grow for their jobs (specialized jobs).

growth needs strength

Someone who is ___ needs a specialized job because they need a lot of stimulation from the environment to get them to their activation level.

hyper-sensitive

Someone who is ___ needs an enriched job because they need a lot of stimulation from the environment to get them to their activation level.

hypo-sensitive

sees work as a means to an end, such as the paycheck

instrumental motivation

refers to the number of tasks that a jobholder performs

job breadth (horizontal loadings)

refers to the amount of discretion that an individual has to decide job activities and outcomes

job depth (vertical loadings)

the allocation of a wider variety of similar tasks to an employee in order to make the job more of a challenge.

job enlargement

What two task characteristics does job enlargement increase?

job enlargement increase skill variety and job breadth/scope

a worker is given more meaningful work and they are also given more freedom and self-direction.

job enrichment

How do economic factors affect redesigning jobs?

job redesign is limited by the amount of money resources available

shifting workers through a set of jobs in planned sequence

job rotation

moderator that influences effectiveness of a job where ability level is typically high

knowledge and skill

What function of management is concerned with job design and organizational design?

organization is the function of management concerned with job design

How does strategy influence job design?

overall strategy should drive how jobs are designed

What task characteristic(s) is job breadth similar to?

skill variety

the degree to which a job requires the employees to perform a wide range of operations in their work and/or degree to which employees must use a variety of equipment and procedures in their work

skill variety

the extent to which employees do an entire or whole piece of work and clearly identify with the results of their efforts

task identity

refers to the extent to which the job and its performance exert a considerable impact on the lives of others

task significance